Council votes to end dead period of recruiting
Opens the door for visits to campuses
The NCAA Division I Council has voted to resume recruiting activities starting June 1, ending a 14-month dead period enacted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The council approved the measure, which opens the door for high school recruits to start taking official and unofficial visits to campuses, after two days of meetings.
Recruits haven’t had in-person contact with coaching staffs since the dead period began in March 2020.
Much of the contact during that period was either by telephone or through video conferencing platforms such as Zoom or FaceTime.
But in some cases, the council acknowledged schools in certain states still impacted by COVID19 could see limited activity based on campus, local and state requirements.
“Based on what our doctors groups have told us, this is probably an appropriate time to start that,” said Todd Berry, who as director of the American Football Coaches Association was on several committees discussing the plan to reinstate the recruiting calendar. “If there is a spike, then certainly there are opportunities to roll some of that back.”
Despite Thursday’s news, college recruiters still will not have in-person visits to spring football games and practices, where a lot of players typically impress coaches with their skills. Coach Brad Lord at Foundation Academy in Winter Garden said, however, having the summer opened up for players to attend camps will still be beneficial.
“It’s unbelievable. The 2022 class and the 2023 class are so far behind in the recruiting process compared to where they usually would be, so it’s going to be great for kids to get to the camps and for coaches to eyeball them in person,” Lord said. “This is going to be big and it should rejuvenate things. I think you will see later 2022 commitments, and schools will be offering to the end of June.”
Coaches can’t fully evaluate a player’s progress from just watching film, so lifting the COVID-19 dead period will be crucial to bringing recruiting back to normalcy.
“I think every head coach in
American hopes it happens,” UCF coach Gus Malzahn said following his team’s spring game Saturday. “There’s nothing like being able to get in front of somebody face-to-face instead of on Zoom. We’ll be prepared for that. We’re moving forward like it’s going to happen. You’ve probably seen official visit dates and all of that. We’re getting prepared and we’re hopeful.”
FSU coach Mike Norvell said last month lifting the dead period was “critical.”
“We want to do everything as good as we possibly can to keep everyone safe. There’s a lot of camps that are being run now, whether they’re through different organizations,” Norvell said. “When you look at the high school players in the state of Florida, it’s challenging when they don’t get the opportunity to get out and to be able to work out in camps and be able to learn and grow and be evaluated. With those missed opportunities, there are a lot of guys it’s limiting their opportunities to play at the next level.”
In anticipation of the lifting of the dead period, several schools, including UCF and FSU, already announced dates for summer football camps.
Some players, such as Orlando Evans running back Jeremiah Simms, said he will take advantage of the opportunity to attend camps at host universities.
“It will benefit us a lot since we couldn’t go last year,” said Simms, who has scholarship invites from Air Force, Army and Navy. “I’ll be at all the Florida camps. I’ve been waiting for this forever. We couldn’t really showcase ourselves unless it was on film. We couldn’t really do anything.”
Players will be able to interact with coaches in a camp setting and sell themselves, while coaches will be able to see in-person what they would be getting.
“If they see me in person, they’d probably just drop an offer on me just because of how my body is and how I’ve been working,” Simms said. “During the season last year, I dropped down to like 168, ... Now, with coach [Kenard] Lang having us lifting all the time, I gained like 15 more pounds. I’m 5-11, 184 pounds now.
“I’m also stronger. I was benching like 225, but now I’m benching 295 and I’m going to states next week for weightlifting.”